Lee McKinnis (57)
Kristina Marynczak (37)
Killian Noonan (36)
Melissa Castillo (32)
NikoVelazquez (27)
Shannon Ratzel (23)
Michelle Reyes (22)
Kyle Barczak (21)
Maura Bilek (21)
Susan Bayaa (21)
For this weeks journal I would like to talk about the Act Out fair that took place on tuesday. I think for the most part it went well I know my team were under a lot of pressure because there was another group that was doing the same organization as us and was said to have done a good job on the poster and everything. And we were one of those groups where basically last week we didn’t have anything on our poster and hadn’t volunteered yet. You could just imagine how much was riding on the line for us, but needless to say we came through and did a good job with the poster. But overall the fair was a good experience for me and everyone else to learn about different nonprofit organizations. For instance the little red school house where it delt with nature and the plants aswell as animals that are trying to invade. We learned from them and also from the share your souls organization, or I learned more because I had volunteered there once already and it’s just a great expereince being able to be a part of something like that. We learned from others and quite a few people came up to us and were very interested in knowing more about my struggle was speaking about the organization to people that were coming to the table. But I was still able to do it and it was a good experience for me interacting with others and letting them know whats the organization about. But yea we had quite a few people that said they would by and drop off bikes or visit so that was excitement and success for us getting people to want to go to the working bikes store. In overall it was great experience and also being able to do this and I know this experience will help me in the future somehow whether it is speaking infront of people or whatever it maybe.
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Armando Cortez
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Armando Cortez
In this weeks Journal I read Chapter 4 of “Why White Rice,” it was an interesting little section. To me I always like reading things that I can in some form relate too. This particular section talked about how when writing a first draft its like your vomit copy. I can agree with that usually when your writng an essay or paper you try and get your thoughts out and 100% of the time its not going to be your best draft. And then it talked about taking the time to actually trying to better your paper. I know there have been many moments in my life where I have had the task of writing my paper better. And alot of the time you do have to sacrifice many things that could be considered better of doing than going over a paper that you did. So what you do is you put that to the side and enjoy doing other fun activities whether it’s hanging out with friends or just something that is far more better than rewritng a paper. It happens but at the end of the day you have to put in the effort and time to reallt do your paper because it is for a grade and you do want to pass the class so you end up having no other choice. But others who really don’t care don’t do it and end up not doing so well in the class. There has to be a sacrifice and it depends on yourself to do it what will you sacrfice to get your work done. And how it reads in the section that once you revise it; it only gets better and better as revise. You become a better writer like that and you show that you wan’t to do better and succed in writing. Overall this was something that I really saw myself in that same type of position of sacrificing something to get your work done; sometimes I did and sometimes I didn’t. Whether I did sometimes or not, well let’s just say that I have become a far more better writer now.
DeVillez, Eric. “Vomit and the Occasional Sacrifice.” Why White Rice?: Thinking through Writing. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Pub., 2010. 77-99. Print. -
Armando Cortez
Hardships is what I would have to describe this experience for my group and I. We made our service activism project on alcohol for under age drinking. I have to be honest right now to this point we are still looking for some organization that we can volunteer in relating to alcohol for under age people. We honestly felt excited for the service we chose because we knew that there was a lot of places and organizations that dealt with that stuff. Especially since I myself had done somewhat of a research assignment before and new organizations and a lot more information. My group member Justyna actually went out of her way to really having a list of all the organizations that dealt with that. Killian, Reynaldo and myself all looked at the different organizations presented to us. We all took different places with calling theme and seeing if they gave us a chance to go visit them. With all of us taking turns we were all unsuccessful and had to make adjustments real fast. We ran into many hardships following that because while getting a hold of the organization, some seemed nice but basically all the organizations required something that would take almost 2 months; drug testing. We literally got disappointed in what had happened. We consulted with professor McGuire and told us that we needed something for sure in motion; he was pretty nervous and so are we. We tied afterward to go to plan B but any organization that we saw could help it would also require the same testing which takes too much time to get the results and volunteer. It is frustrating for my group and I to try and get something going we are right now stuck as I speak and time is running out.Right now I can’t be writing all of the information about our current progress with our organization because like I said we are stuck and currently my group I are waiting for responses from organizations that we have contacted. we have tried to go with other organizations; something dealing with our veterans. But much like many of the organizations with alcoholism, they have also stated that they want tests done and it’s not going to work seeing how we have this month to finish our project. So yea it has been really tough for us trying to find something hopefully we get something fast or go with plan B; which is talk with the counselors here at moraine and try and set something up since this month deals with alcoholism. My teammates and i have met two times and all those times we have set out to do something with alcoholism but our failure to find some organization has really put us on the spot and are struggling to get something done. We don’t know what it is that we’ll end up doing but whatever it is, it has to be something now at this point. hardships is really what were going through right now and we might just have to consult with professorMcguire and see what he suggests because this is ridiculous in many ways than one. Hopefully we get something and and are able to give more information because we are stuck as of right now. We had justyna contact one of the organizations that dealt with alcohol and we had some stickers delivered to us where we can post them at liquor stores; sort of like something to get us started in the right direction. Since that day where we had that we felt confident. But the next time we met up it was not much of confidence because all the oranizations recommended major things for us to do tests and stuff like that. We were getting nervous and so we were at the point where any organization was good for us; even if it wasn’t one that we were so interested in. Professor McGuire was already looking for us to be volunteering and having feedback of how that was but non of us had that feedback where we could give it to him. there was some light at the end of the tunnel; we had all decided to do an organization like share your soles or feed our starving children, those were flexible and needed nothing complicated like the other organizations demanded of us. So we were quite happy at that point but talking to McGuire and hearing what his advice was for us that we should try and be diverse not something we had already done. But to us it was anything that we could do at that point so we didn’t really take into consideration the whole being diverse thing. Anyhow we talked to him knowing what our mind set was and what we had at that point and so he was really concerned for what we had so far which was basically not much. He gave us many suggestions that some people from his other class were doing and maybe hoping that we can talk to some of them and see if were interested in doing something like that. So my teammates and I went to talk with one of his students in another class and he gave us pretty good information on what he was doing. the Bike organization that he was doing was something really flexible; we could eaily get in and do our volunteer work so that was a preety good relief to hear. So we thanked him for his help and decided that we were going to do that; and so now we finally had aniorganization where we could volunteer because many of the organizations we contacted would would give descent amount of information but we couldn’t voulnteer which is what we are looking for. So now were just looking and seeing when we could go to this organization. Everything started off with confidence and slowly that disappeared and turned into nervousness; and now thankfully we have gotten some of that confidence back I mean we sure do now that we have an organization where we can go to and volunteer at. All of us now that we have something and since we don’t really know about that bike organization it was something that we just ended up deciding to do because we had trouble geting anything; we were now researching and trying to learn more about the organization. It isn’t somethign we are really into but hopfully when we go do volunteer work it will be a good experience for all of us and maybe who knows it will be something that we really didn’t think it was interesting but by volunteering and doing all the research we can really learn to enjoy… to be continued.
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Armando Cortez
For this weeks Journal I read chapter 4 on How Do You Know When You’re Done? This was interesting to me because it’s something that I have gone through when writing different papers. Whenever I get homework where they have a requirement of how long the paper should be I usually tend to focus on that then really focusing at the task at hand. I know from a standpoint that’s the wrong way to handle it. But it happens and to this very point I have been like that. I tend to focus on how much i have to fill up, rather then letting my mind wonder and develop many ideas that I know I have inside. I have to really try and block that thinking of how much left and just let my mind surprise me with many developing ideas. From another standpoint I can remembr a time where I turned in a paper and I actually had alot to say for that particular paper; much detail. But anyway I turned in the paper and what i got back was a good grade I don’t know if it was B or and A but it was good. Now I can remember a particular paper where I really didn’t put much into it some ideas but mostly I was concentrated on getting the page maximum. I got it but when I turned it in and then I got it back with a grade of a low C, not too good. That’s what I set myself to get anyway because I didn’t let my mind work and come up with different ideas. I was too concentrated on just getting the paper done and reaching the maximum requirement of page length. Overall this was a good read and I really learned from it because it was something that is applied to my life. These type of reads are always interesting to me when I can relate to what is being talked about in the chapter and get better at your writing from the advice you read.
— DeVillez, Eric, “You Can Do It in the Garden or in an Elevator.” “Why White Rice.” How Do You Know When You’re Done?Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2010. 94-95. Print -
Armando Cortez
My Journal entry for this week is on Chapter 8 where it talked about asking dumb questions. The professor talked about an experience he had in class where he would ask the students if they had any questions, and nobody would respond anything. When professor asks that it is technically a yes or no aswer but most of the times many students like myself don’t say anything. I can relate to that because I’m a student and there have been countless times where I would be in a room where that has happened. And I guess the profeesor in the reading admits it to be a stupid question. He says how he wants change that up a bit and be able to ask tough questions where there is an interesting conversation at hand, and not just this silence at the end of class. It was pretty interesting how Professor Dow plans on changing that about him. So I guess in this case you could believe that there is such a thing as a dumb question. But still on the contrary of this whole thing I still beleive having to ask if there are any questions is not a dumb question. I just think that what it all boils down to is the fact there are many people in class where they are shy and don’t want to speak infront of anybody. But someone could say that the reason that happens could also be because they just want to get out of class and don’t want to waste time asking any questions; so I can slo see from that perspective. What it all comes down to I believe is being able to really understand what better questions we can ask; well as a teacher. But as a student we need to be able to really contribute when a question is asked by a professor. I know it could be a challenge, I know that for a fact.
Thomas Dow. “Advice, Writer To Writer Answering Your Frequently Asked Questions.” Why White Rice? Thinking Through Writing. Kendall Hunt Pub, 2010.175-197. Print. -
Armando Cortez
In today’s journal I read chapter 2 of Why white rice? In class sometimes whenever asked to do papers, I usually have this tendency of having my mind do all the thinking and what ever I have going through it putting it down on paper. And thats what mostly it talks about in this section in which I can relate too. It’s wierd but I do have the tendency to do that because it has worked out for me in various occasions. For example, I would have my teachers revise my work and usually my feedback would be that I did nice work and that it was interesting. It talked about how it tells you to let your mind wander and write down whatever it is you come up with of course having to do with the topic of your paper, not just anything. So yea do that and don’t worry about the mechanical errors that you may make. To me write there was so something I can truly relate to because that’s the tendency I have. I usually write down whatever it is I come up with not caring of the little errors I may make along the way while writing. I only do that at the end which in the section of the reading it tells you to go back and proofread and take out what is not good, which is soemthing I, alright maybe most of the time but not all the time which I shoud though but anyways that’s how I can relate to that section in the chapter. Suprisingly I never really thought that was a strategy to use at all but now I comprehend that there are many strategies we may be using and we don’t know it; that to me is fascinating.
Micheal McGuire. “Invention; Trust your mind as it wanders.” Why White Rice? Thinking Through Writing. Kendall Hunt Pub, 2010. 37-38. Print. -
Armando Cortez
In this weeks journal I read chapter 6 where professor McGuire really talked about how he built a playhouse not knowing how to do it, after he had talked it with his wife. He did it anyway and actually built a nice playhouse for his son. And I thought that was something interesting how he talked about how he didn’t know anything about buliding a playhouse but doing it and it actually turned out nice. He then connected it to how sometimes we say were not writers or that were not creative. But sometimes that happens because we don’t give it a try like Mr. McGuire did with the playhouse. I know from a personal standpoint I’ve felt like I couldn’t be creative but as soon as I had a pen or pencil and began writing, most of my writing turned out to be pretty good; or that’s the feedback I got from my trachers. And sometimes when we would exchange papers for peer review, most of the people that got to read my writing would give me good feedback as well so I can personally say giving it a try won’t do you bad but on the contrary it could open up this new talent you didn’t know you had. Overall, I thought this chapter was interesting in the fact that I myself have to try to do new things knowing that if I keep practicing I can become better at it. That’s what happened with my writing and it’s something we should all take into consideration when were presented with something we think we can’t do. Give it a try and to your surprise you might be good at it as I found out from experience first hand.
Michael McGuire. “Recognizing that All Writing Is Creative Writing.” Why White Rice?: Thinking through Writing. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Pub., 2010. 133-135. Print. -
Armando Cortez
Service Learning
The share your souls experience was something like no other for me. I say this in all honesty because I have never been in a place where it feels good to do the work that your doing at hand. I say it because personally anytime we had community service opportunities I have not been the guy to automatically say I would love to volunteer. I guess to me it was more like being lazy and not wanting to take the time and actually do something that can benefit our society in the bigger picture. But anytime that I would do community service I’ve actually enjoyed it like recently I went to share your souls. For me just seeing thousands of shoes that were all piled up in different sections, just waiting to be boxed off for the people that don’t have any; was something I really looked at as something great and unbelievable. For them taking the time to box different variety of shoes for the less fortunate and being a part of that was something special to me. There is no other great satisfactory then by being able to help out, knowing that small portion of your help will help many people out there in the world is something I’m really proud of. Being there in this big place where its almost like a never ending hall.In The middle of this hall you got thousands of boxes piled and bags filled with different shoes just waiting to be opened and sorted out in the right way. Just by being able to pair up the different variety of shoes and cleaning the ones that needed cleaning or putting shoe laces to the ones that didn’t have any was something that words can’t really describe that feeling. Not only that but bringing shoes to help donate was also something good and rewarding for me. Rewarding in the way that I know some person is going to benefit from what I have donated and just imagining the smile on their face is enough of reward to me.
I mean at first we started off by having to watch a video of the foundation that is share your souls. it was unbelievable all the shoes that go to waste and all the shoes that this service foundation is able to pick up for the ones in need. i guess sometimes we take for granted what we have not knowing the reality in our world where there are just thousands of people without shoes in the world, it’s just amazing. but to see this foundation and all the positive progress that it’s been generating is off the charts for me, I take my hat off to them for putting up such a foundation to really take the time to gather as much shoes that are not going to be needed and ship them to someone who will. I mean the many places that this foundation has impacted is just a loss of words for me. The issue I see in this is that there are just so many people who really misuse their shoes and I can be one to admit, that applies to me. I like many other in the world today have the tendency to just put the old shoes that one has worn aside and where the new ones. And that’s it there just going to remain there because the likely of you wearing them again is not really good and so they just sit there in dust. Not knowing there are foundations like share your soles where you can donate and make a difference to the people out there who don’t have shoes to wear and are literally walking the streets with bare feet. That right there I believe is the issue and like I said I’m one of those unfortunately because I didn’t realize really their were places like share your soles where you can actually donate shoes.
I believe that in order to change this situation all of us because I know there are a lot of people out there that buy shoes and once they get old, they put them aside and get all dirty and dusty. And in order to change that we really need to consider that if were not going to be using certain shoes again then we should probably find some types of foundation like the share your soles and donate the shoes there. I’m so certain they’ll be more beneficial there then being some place in your room where you won’t touch them at all. I believe this could really change us of who we are in this life as more considerate and helpful to our community. Things like this taken into action can help us appreciate really what impact we can make to the lives of people misfortune. What you do can help alter a change in someone’s else’s and from that there can be a chain of change that can help make this community a better one to live by and respect because from the way things are right now I don’t think there much to respect as we are not taking that measure of action into affect like we should. The foundation of share your soles of which I was really fortunate enough to serve really has impacted worldwide as there are many but many shoes being sent different parts of the world for instance Haiti which they were going to actually ship shoes over there as I heard while I was there. But in the larger scale of things they had already before sent shoes to Haiti and other part of central America. The success was phenomenal which saw many kids and other people get shoes that they were able to put on their feet and finally didn’t have to walk around bare foot and it just set the tone of many more things to come. From what i experienced it definitely did and you just can’t help but put a smile on your face when helping out to ship all the thousands of shoes brought together.
To me the future holds many great things for share your souls because there has been a progress that has already commenced and there is no slowing it down. From what I was able to see from the video and actually being in the place where you helped out and doing the hands on work . For example, putting the Nike shoes with Nike shoes or sandals with sandals. You continue this process in order to ship all the shoes to certain locations where people can benefit from them and you can’t help but appreciate what your doing; making the biggest difference in someone’s life. Obviously this experience has affected me in a positive way and has made me want to be able to do something like this again. Impacting someone’s life in the most positive way makes me feel so proud of myself, I like that feeling and maybe it’s about time I start volunteering more often. I’ve enjoyed it every time so why not. And I feel what could be done is let more people know about the cause if it’s either through school which I think is the best way. But you can also have different programs running at school that could support the foundation of share your soles and not necessarily that foundation but other foundations as well that have the same cause. This way more people could know about it and get involved but the key is how to get it started there are many people that say there going to do it but at the end of the day they come up short. Like I said though, if we have people that take the effort and time to do it we can actually make a big impact in getting more and more people involved and aware of the situation. We have to be relentless in our pursuit of making a difference through any service foundation like share your soles is, it won’t always be easy but we will have achieved something special in the process.
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Roberto Kobik
PEER REVIEW
This is another peer review this time for your service reflection. I do not normally start out a peer review by making grammar and sentence structure suggestions but I will anyways just to make sure you are aware of the few things I caught. In your first paragraph in the tenth line the word satisfactory is used incorrectly. The sentence should read, “There is no other great satisfaction then being able to help out; knowing that small portion of your help will help many people out there in the world is something I’m really proud of.” I also think the semi-colon is necessary because the sentence just sounds weird without it. I noticed that there are a lot of incorrect sentences and sentence fragments as well. The third paragraph needs the most work. I think you made too many errors and also I do not think I interpreted what you were trying to convey. The main thing in the third paragraph however is the run on sentences and sentence fragments. For example the first two sentences make absolutely no sense. Errors like these make it difficult to read your paper. But even worse they make your message unclear and I do not fully know what you tried to say. This is probably the most confusing sentence of your paper. “I believe that in order to change this situation all of us because I know there are a lot of people out there that buy shoes and once they get old, they put them aside and get all dirty and dusty. And in order to change that we really need to consider that if were not going to be using certain shoes again then we should probably find some types of foundation like the share your soles and donate the shoes there.” I think that maybe some of these ideas in the sentences need to be combine and others separated. Some words and fragments of your sentences need to be eliminated and or moved around. The rest of this paragraph also goes on like that. This area I think is where you need the most work. I think you should also work on your style of writing. If you practice your organization and flow your papers will be much more readable as well as enjoyable. Plus it will be easier to understand what ideas you are trying to convey. This is important in informative and persuasive styles of writing. Also some sentences are not finished they are cut off and some don’t even have a subject or main idea. Over all I think your paper is okay. It is good that you realized how grateful we the more fortunate should be. It is also good that you enjoyed this volunteer work and will do it more often. Although after reading a few papers I noticed that everyone loves community service and everyone has been impacted so positively that they will do it again. Now this is great but I feel weird because either I’m the only one being honest or I’m just a terrible hearted person and everyone else are saints.
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Maura Bilek
Hi Armando, I’m reviewing yours because only one person in my group had their draft completed. To start, as a reader I
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Maura Bilek
*I appreciated your honesty in the start of the piece. I think a lot of people probably felt the same way, I know I did. It’s not that we don’t care, it’s that we’re not as quick to help others as we are to help ourselves. Prof. McGuire did a great job of bringing awareness to the class about how much the world needs our help. The rest of the class did a great job of that too, through all their different research topics. I was moved by this part: “Just by being able to pair up the different variety of shoes and cleaning the ones that needed cleaning or putting shoe laces to the ones that didn’t have any was something that words can’t really describe that feeling.” I’m happy for you being able to experience this, it seems like everyone who did Share Your Soles gained a lot of knowledge from it. I really wish I would have been able to participate. C
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Maura Bilek
Can you imagine not being able to afford shoes for yourself, or for your child whose feet are constantly growing? I think your paper really showed your understanding of this, I can tell you put a lot of thought into everything you experienced at Share Your Soles. It seems like this organization has a lot of potential to keep growing and expanding. Hopefully more people who had positive experiences will return to volunteer and keep this going! There were some grammatical errors in the piece here and there, but the content made me disregard it completely. I think you did an awesome job on this draft, it was interesting and you had a lot of detail in it too. Good read.
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Armando Cortez
In this weeks journal I read chapter 4. There was an interesting short section in chapter four that I thought was interesting, it was on section 4.3.5. Even though it really is a small section, I could relate to that in someway because I have gone through that stage and it’s pretty funny looking back. It’s titled ” just because I know what you mean doesn’t mean It’s right” they got that right. I remember making those mistakes in papers. I would sometimes write my essay or paper whatever it was and make a wierd phrase; and although the teacher would understand what I meant, It would still be wrong and would take off points for not having it written the right way it was supposed to be. But I just look back and really think to myself of what I was thinking making those type of errors. I then realize that the reason is because I never really looked back at my finished work. i never never went back and gave it a double check because really when your done writing your paper, the least thing you want to do is go back and go through the whole thing again.And that’s something to this day i still haven’t been able to cope with to try and change that. That’s why it’s so funny to me that I haven’t been able to change that about myself, keeping in mind that was all the way from middle school maybe even lower than that. The point is I realized that about myself reading this short section and at the same time it’s embarrasing of trying to do it now that I’m in collge; but what I always say better late than never.
DeVillez, Eric R, Michael McGuire, Thomas P. Dow, Troy A. Swanson. “Why White Rice? Thinking Through Writing” Chapter 4 “You can do it in the Garden Or The Elevator.” Kendall Hunt. 2010. p. 77-99. Print. -
Armando Cortez
Letter To The Editor
Dear Editor,
Bullying is a growing issue here in the United States. Kids each day are getting bullied at school and it’s something that needs to be stopped. I don’t know how many issues have arised where constant kids get bullied because of things like being fat, the type of skin color, what you wear, what you listen too or what defect they fine in you. There are more but these are only a few. These are what cause kids that are being bullied to take extreme mesaures and consider to take their life away because they feel they don’t have anyone who they can turn to. And that’s not true because they need to realize that they do have someone they can turn to; someone they can trust. Alot of this bullying going around is something I’m sure you had gone through at some point in your life, everyone for that matter I’m sure has gone through it; I know I have. That’s why I believe knowing the personal experience of going through that and the rest of the effects of bullying there should be more action taken from the part of the communtiy worldwide because bullying is an issue worldwide. Bully campaigns are something I consider a great way for many people to be able to unite and bring forth their efforts to really stop and talk to these kids that are bullies. Not only the bullies but the kids affected from bullying. Telling them not to be a bully but be a star for the day of tommorow and giving advice to the ones affected from bullying, encouraging them to be who they are and letting them know your their to help them; that there’s that sense of hope to their lives.
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Amber Bey
I feel that bullying is a huge issue that has never been addressed properly. It was a smart thing to write to an editor because people of higher rank could make an impact on the issue. Bullying is still a major problem in many schools and communities around the United States, even after hearing about all these terrible accidents involving bullying. It seems like it is something that can never be stopped, but if there were proper consequences I believe that there could definitely be a decrease in the amount of bully cases. Along with the decline of cases, I think the severity of the cases would diminish as well. Bullying can cause a lot of physical and emotional pain to an individual. There are even cases where those being bullied actually caused harm to those who did not have any involvement in the bullying. Bullies do not realize how much harm they are causing people.
There are so many ways in which bullying can cause harm to so many individuals. First of all, the person being bullied can go through a lot of pain; depending how they are being bullied. If the bully is harming them physically, then this should result in the bully being arrested. Because of the fact that most bullies are still children, people do not think to give them strict consequences. Since they are afflicting so much harm on others, they should be getting even worse consequences. Bullies that do not afflict physical pain but emotional pain should also get some form of consequences as well, such as suspension. If people realize that it is not being taken lightly, then hopefully they will refrain from bullying.
There are multiple ways in which bullying can be addressed further. Knowing that the editor will be reading this letter, hopefully they will do something to get the attention of more people. If people know that the issue is a growing problem, they will probably push further in getting the problem solved. The editor can get the attention of school officials and other people that have the power to stop the problem. These people could come up with many solutions to bullying. If they force punishments such as expulsion or worse, then kids might reconsider any form of bullying. They can also set up forms of counseling for people being bullied or the bullies themselves. There can be different volunteer projects for students and people in the community to get involved in stopping the problem.
I believe your letter was well addressed and you stayed on subject. I think you could have added more information on bullying and the different forms. You could have also added the outcomes of the issue along with suicide. This would make the problem more addressable to the editor. Instead of saying that you know that everyone has been bullied, you could have added the different focuses on the issue. This makes the letter less personal. One more piece of advice is to watch your sentence structure and punctuation.
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Roberto Kobik
PEER REVIEW
A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
I have read your other pieces of work for this class and I think you are an okay writer. I think some of your papers lose flow or dot have it to begin with. This is one of those papers that I think does have some flow but I think you did not clarify the information as well as possible. You could have given more reasons of how to help in this type of situation. You should also beef it up a bit more in the sense that you did not really write about all of the outcomes of bullying. I am sure we all know it is bad but how bad is it exactly? Most of the public probably does not know how serious this issue is. Many people probably do not know that a lot of suicides are because of bullying. I have heard of a few kids that either overdosed or shot themselves in the face because they took to heart what so jerk said. A lot of the public also probably does not know the types other things bullying might lead to. There could be another school shooting because some poor kid has just had it with all the haters out there. There are many severe outcomes to bullying and I think your paper would do a better job of convincing the public if they knew exactly how bad it is. As adults we don’t really pay close attention to what others say to us in the sense that we do not get as upset as children do. So some adults just may not know the seriousness of this issue. We were all once children and of course every child wants to be popular. When they get bullied it hurts because it makes you feel like less of a person as the bully lowers your self esteem. Lowering of self esteem can cause kids to ruin their lives as they just want to be accepted and with low self esteem some kids may aim low and find themselves hanging out with the wrong crowd. I have been on both ends of the tunnel and know that being bullied totally sucks as it makes you feel singled out. I also know that being a bully is defiantly not cool and both should be stopped. There should be something done on this issue and the public should be better informed on the effects of bullying. Many people do not know or do not even care that this issue is going on. I have seen parents before as their child came up and told them that there is this kid at school that is treating them poorly. I saw the parent give the kid some very stupid advice. He said “don’t let them talk like that just beat the kid up next time.” I do not think the kid got much help from that answer. And because of that statement I don’t think that the public is properly informed.
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Armando Cortez
In this weeks journal I read an interesting little section in chapter 4 section 4.2.2 titled “Turn Yourself into a Giant Five Year Old.” This really got me interested in reading because it started talking about how when you read ask questions about the text of the book your reading or anything in that matter of what your reading. It talks about going back to the days where my middle school teacher would tell me to use the who, what, where, when, why method when reading any book or paper. To this really brought to my great interest because I think it is important to be able to ask yourself those questions. Most of the time people don’t do it but personally I think it helps alot of the time. You get to really understand the concept and the big picture in everything you didn’t understand when you were reading the book or paper. I have personally proven that if I do ask myself those questions I am able to really understand more of the big concept that it’s trying to give me. I mean I was and still am one of those people who just don’t pick up a book because we just don’t want to deal with all of that. It really makes you think and that’s why most of the people don’t bother in doing that because we don’t want to stress ourselves to that point, in the long run though it will make you a better reader in thinking outside the box and better writer as well.
Devillez, Eric.”Turn Yourself into a Giant Five Year Old” Why White Rice? Thinking Through Writing. Kendall Hunt Pub, 2010. 77-99. Print -
Armando Cortez
For this weeks journal in “Why White Rice?” chapter two titled “Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone” was pretty interesting. I thought it was interesting because I do believe writing is all about taking risks. When ever writing papers I believe having personal information on their makes the paper more intriguing and makes it more better. Sometimes when you come across with writing like that, you find connections with the writer with what he has said and therefore makes for the reader to keep on reading. That’s sort of been my philosophy but aging there is that sense of fear if you could call it that. Fear in the sense that you’re revealing personal infromation about yourself that your not so sure you should do. But It would make for a more interesting paper and it would really show how much you care about your writing in the long run. You could just write about something you don’t know if it makes sense and not really care; which I think is happening now a days. Many of the students now don’t care what they write about just for the hopes of getting it done and that’s why there is no creativity or that sense of a paper being unique. This past tuesday I had a conference with Professor McGuire and he was telling me a little about that. I should get a little bit more personal in my detail, which I agree I should have done I usually don’t hold back and let it all out but for some reason dor the first draft we did I kind of disappointed in that matter. Maybe it was because it was a first draft, I don’t really know but that’s sort of been my thing to do get personal and make my paper interesting in that matter. Anyway I may have not done it for that particular draft but i’m sure to go back to my comfort zone and make my writing much better from here on out with the different topics that are going to be placed before me.
Michael, McGuire. “Chapter 2.” Why White Rice? Thinking Through Writing. Dubuque: Kendall Hunt Pub, 2010. 25-59. Print. -
Armando Cortez
Elevator Speech Outline
Topic: Alcoholism
- excess of alcohol harms the person’s body
- Alcoholism causes illness, child and adult abuse, and also causes many drunk driving car accidents, its the third most leading cause of deaths
- Alcoholism causes troubles within families
- bad decisions are made as a result; they think they are fine and can stop whenever they want
You can help:
- go to or call and talk to any organizations that deal with this problem
Many people turn to alcohol:
- To help forget problems
- For the pleasure of feeling better
- Being able to release tension and change moods
- I currently have a family member going through this and so it’s something I strongly feel more should be done to stop this issue from rising and causing many disasters
- Anyone that’s going through alcoholism, reach out and inform them that they can get help and have them talk to someone who can help with the issue perhaps someone from some organization.
Alcoholism is a rising issue and causing much problems in today’s society. That’s why being able to decrease the amount of alcoholics by helping them change their ways in someway will make them more healthier, there would be less drunk driving car accidents, and less family troubles.
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Armando Cortez
Alcoholism: A real life nightmare
1 What would you do if it all ended tomorrow, times running out there’s no more you can borrow, there are so many paths which one are you going to follow? What would you do? Well Alcoholism is something i don’t think the most drunk person in the world would stop even if it’s own life depended on it. That’s how I’ve seen it, that person just needs to get that one last drink in but what happens after he gets it, he ends up drinking a whole bottle or another pack of cold ones. Alcoholism a disease that is worldwide re-noun in America and it is something that many people say is treatable. Others say that it’s often the choice of the person who drinks. What it is, the excessive consumption of alcohol that one puts in their system until they end up alcohol dependent. It really is a critical issue in today’s society because of all the child and parental abuse, car accidents, illness, the list goes on and on of the many harms alcoholism causes. And it really is an issue to all the families who have relatives or anyone within that family that they could consider going through alcoholism. To add more fire into the wood an article states,”The World Health Organization estimates there are 140 million alcoholics worldwide” (ProQuest Staff). And To top it all off it’s the third leading cause of death in the world. Some competing viewpoints that one may have to decrease the disasters it causes is to help out the people by sending them to a rehab facility and hopefully that makes them change their ways, or just being able to one on one having a conversation with that person and explaining what their doing needs to stop. But that usually ends up not happening and they continue like nothing. The reason I chose to talk about alcoholism above everything else is because of personal family experience. That reason being that I feel so strong about this and now this is giving me the opportunity to lay out everything and how it should be stopped.
2 Alcoholism has been something that many people don’t really take into consideration that much of the dangers it could cause. Everybody else really takes into account any other social issue but I don’t know to me it seems alcoholism isn’t a big of an issue to people to take really into consideration like any of the other issues. This issue should be much of importance like any other issue out there in society. The many people who pass their drinking point has been what has lead to this issue and as a result caused many vehicle accidents and death. The important history surrounding this issue is that it’s been around for a while now and it’s only evolved and evolved from certain standpoints until it has somehow been taken as something like regularly happens and everybody just seems to leave it if you could say on the sidelines and nobody really pays attention to it. But they don’t understand that more and more people each day are affected by this and are dying because of alcoholism it’s affecting the many families involved in it as well. Take into example what a Harvard psychologist named Charlie Gills said about the situation in an interview,”My sense is that we could be going about it a lot better. It’s possible that the reason we’re not making much progress is that we’re not treating decision-making directly” (Gillis). And I think he said it best because we should be doing something about it and I do believe if the drinker has the choice then we should be starting there and working are way up the ladder in making the world better for people and generations to come. But again like I’ve said the people tend to push it off,”I think the rest of the addiction world has just ignored it; in academia and science, people just tend to ignore that which they disagree with, unless they’re forced to confront it” (Gillis). I think he said it best we just tend to ignore the issue until were really confronted by it; then we tend to make it a big deal in which I think it shouldn’t be handle that way. The issue should really be put into consideration and be dealt with more than it really is, I mean take the many programs that are involved with alcoholism like for example the World Health organization or the Centers for Disease Control and prevention. Two organization that provide support to many countries around the world and help people with issues like alcoholism; they help monitor and asses the many trends that happen to come out in this issue. So you can already assume that the different people around the world are the ones affected by this issue. The setbacks that that organizations like the WHO encounter when dealing with this issue is the fact that people don’t want to get help because in their minds they think their fine and they can stop whenever they feel like it. That’s the problem, they think their fine but in reality they seriously need help. Others sometimes get help but when they barely receive help they tend to quit or not come back for the treatment they were going to get. In an article I read it said, “ We hypothesize that patients balance expected benefits and costs during a treatment episode when deciding on compliance; a patient is more likely to comply if doing so results in an expected gain in health benefit” (Thomas G). That’s another thing that is being put as a setback because that’s the only way anyone would comply if getting something return otherwise you could forget about them ever coming back for treatment.
3 At the moment it shows that there are many challenges still to this day battling this issue and trying to get some sort of positive outcome on the treatment that their trying to have on the many people dealing with alcoholism. There are many people struggling with trying to stop their excessive use of alcohol drinking. The struggles you can say are endless when it comes to dealing with this issue. Many people thinking their fine and not wanting to seek help from an organization or some type of health facility where they can really do number an stir you in the right direction. it’s really overwhelming the number of deaths that alcoholism has caused and the different obstacles that it causes for people who really need this help in their lives. In an article
“The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota said it is demanding $500 million in damages for the cost of health care, social services and child rehabilitation caused by chronic alcoholism on the reservation, which encompasses some of the nation’s most impoverished counties” (Schulte).
Not only does this issue damage oneself but the cost of trying to receive treatment in the world today is taking its toll on the many countries going through this issue take South Dakota for example it really is just unbelievable in the bigger picture of all this. The health is not the only thing concerned about it is also the amount of money one would have to be paying in order to receive that treatment. And that is one of the many struggles that people tend to face when trying to receive that treatment for alcoholism. so people got to realize that not only the ability to get help but also the cost of getting help also takes it’s toll some families or certain people can’t make that much of payment for getting treated with the issue. I’d say in the whole perspective of this issue, I think that’s the main struggle being able to pay off the treatment that one wants in order to be better again. And not being able to pay up make s that person just continue and continue to drink because of not being able to pay off the treatment they desire. Something should be done about this because I have an uncle and he’s going through the same situation of thinking he’s fine but he’s not. I feel for him because he’s family why wouldn’t I but also the issue is being able to go somewhere to get that help; in which in this case he doesn’t have the money to do it. Everybody on the outside needs to be able to see this and recognize that they need to do something to make treatment affordable when it comes to alcoholism but not only for this issue but for others as well.
4 Some of the organizations that take action in this particular issue are the CDC ( Centers of disease Control and Prevention) and the WHO ( World Health Organization). These two organizations although both tend to help alcoholism and try to get people on the right path their ways of helping differ from each other. For example the organization of CDC really only tends to inform the person of the hazards that alcoholism could do to their own body’s what the consequences would be if they continue in that same path. They try to make the person know how to enhance their health decisions what the best way out of getting out alcoholism could be for them. While on the other hand WHO has a better way of dealing with people that have problems with alcoholism. They still inform you about what is best that you do like CDC but they also do something about it they try and get you to go into their organization and bring you essential care to whatever it is the issue your going through in this case it would be alcoholism so they would help with that. They would meet with you one on one and help you with the problem of drinking and trying to make you go in another direction so you can better yourself as a human being and be able to live a life free from worries of taking your life away or taking someone else’s life away from the dangers that it can cause at the point of extreme. Once you go to that point there is no going back and that’s one of the special things of this organization that it really helps you sit down and talk about your issue and step by step they give you methods in order for you to help you defeat this obstacle that is alcoholism.
5 What you can do about this issue if you want to help is if they know somebody that is going through this issue what you can do is really sit down with that person and talk to them about it. Really sit down and don’t hold anything back get to the point of letting them realize that what their doing is not right that they need help and maybe offer them a place where they can go find that help like some type of organization. In one of the article it reads,” Researchers are working on numerous and varied approaches to improving the accessibility, quality, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of treatment for alcohol use disorders (AUDs)” (Huebner). It’s true that they are enhancing new ways into helping people with this issue of alcoholism and if you want to get involved you can contact any organization that deals with these issues and have them sit with you maybe have an interview for them and the way you can do that is for example if you want to be able to help let’s say by using the help of the organization known as WHO; you can go to http://www.who.int and learn more about what they do and what the organization does to the people dealing with alcoholism. Not only that but you can be a part of it if you go to their contact information through the website I presented and they will be more than happy to have a volunteer that wants to make a big difference in someone’s life. But in reality there isn’t much you can do yourself other than talk with the person who’s going through alcoholism and much of the time it doesn’t really go that well. I refer to the fact that they listen but in the end they just take it like anything else and ignore it because the6y always think it’s easy they can stop at anytime they feel like it. The reality is they can’t that’s why from my perspective a person can’t really do much but if you get help from an organization such as WHO, your bound to be able to help more in a good positive way and maybe then the person who’s going through alcoholism will open his or her eyes and take up the help because they realize they are in serious denial of them being messed up which they are. With the help of an organization like that it will only help you in the long run.
6 If you want to know more about this disease known as alcoholism take a look at this article:
Friedman, Richard A. “Who Falls to Addiction, and Who Is Unscathed?.” New York Times. 02 Aug 2011: D.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 21 Feb 2012.
This really talks about how can a person who is drinking a lot be able to manage it while others just fall right into addiction. It goes as far as to compare alcohol and drug positions what are the factors that cause this change in a persons mind and attitude around anyone close to them. They also talk about the illness behind each of these issues separately and together some have similarities and of course they have differences. Although they try to take both sides and make them look like their the same in some ways they coulnd’t be any further from the truth because they are not the same and they each experience their own side effects and moods. Sometimes peopel confuse drugs side affects with alcoholism and their effects but that’s because they are not able to full understand the big picture here and that’s what this article does with that. It takes you in and tells you why some manage this issue and other become addicted.
Jayson, Sharon. “The Intoxicating Allure of Alcohol.” USA TODAY. 22 Aug 2011: D.4. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 21 Feb 2012.
This article brings you into the more common side if you will,where they talk about how colleges are really putting more in their thinking on the dangers of drinking and how you can tell when a student has been drinking too much. They get to find out that the downside of all the excessive drinking isn’t something that is going to stop students from going their own way and contionue doing what they have been. It adds an interesting view where it talks about how the benefits out of drinking alcohol outweigh the bad ones for college students. All that in more in order to realize that what is being done here is for people going through or know someone going through alcoholism can see clearly and change that of themselves.
Beck, Melinda. “Raising the Chance of Some Cancers with Two Drinks a Day.” Wall Street Journal Online. 01 Nov 2011: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 21 Feb 2012.
This last article I found talks about the more serious threat that alcoholism can do to you. In here it talks about how regular drinking can become vital and can cause cancer in the different areas of your body. This is truly bad for someone who is dealing with alcoholism because that’s what they do on a regular basis, always have to have that one drink in but it leads to many more drinks until you don’t even know who you are that’s scary right there. This article also examines different people or students in college that are being tested. they find that the majority of the students being tested come out with the possibility of getting cancer in some are of their bodies. no doubt that this is a scary thing for some one who thinks having one beer is good and that more should be even better; they will find opposite results.
7 Work cited:
ProQuest Staff. “At Issue: Alcoholism.” ProQuest LLC. 2012: n.pag. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 19 Feb 2012.
Gillis, Charlie. “Addiction: New Research Suggests It’s a Choice.” Maclean’s (Toronto, Canada) Vol. 122, No. 20. 01 Jun 2009: 19-21. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 20 Feb 2012.
Thomas G. McGuire, et al. “Progress And Compliance In Alcohol Abuse Treatment.” Journal Of Health Economics 29.2 (2010): 213-225. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Feb. 2012.
Schulte, Grant. “Tribe Suing Beer Companies for Alcohol Problems.” Grand Island Independent. 09 Feb 2012: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 20 Feb 2012.
Huebner, Robert B., and Lori Wolfgang Kantor. “Advances In Alcoholism Treatment.” Alcohol Research & Health 33.4 (2011): 295-299. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
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Roberto Kobik
PEER REVIW PROJECT 2
Alcoholism is an interesting topic which I have learned a lot about from your paper. You have a family member suffering from this condition which has inspired you to choose this topic. You forgot to label the parts of the paper by the way, like instead of numbers it would be more like a brochure with section titles. You had a good attention grabber because it got the reader to picture themselves like that. You had a fair amount of information throughout your paper. You had a lot of good information but I think your paper would have been more dramatic if you included stats. Specifically stats of population effected and amount of people in the US. You did also say that alcoholism can be a habit and many people will tend to do certain things they should not while intoxicated. One of those things people should not do but tend to do if they are alcoholics is operate a motor vehicle. So your paper would have been more dramatic because you could include stats for how many people get into car accidents because alcohol was a factor. These facts and statistics would help persuade your reader to act more because they know how much of the population is affected and how their condition affects other people. Another thing that you could have done to highlight how large of a problem this is would be to give more information on the other things effected by the alcoholic. You did give a few reasons like car accidents and family issues, child abuse and death tolls. However including more of this type of information would help the reader understand how serious this problem is. You did give good information about what the certain organizations do to help. You also did include examples of two organizations and how each of them differ in help. I was surprised that Alcoholics anonymous was not listed in your paper but then again a lot of people know about that organization and not many people know of these. I did not know about any other organization that helps with alcoholism until I read your paper. Another thing you could do is include more information in the how you can help section. You only left the website for one group. And you did also say that it is hard to help these people but you can be on a hot line or volunteer. If you were to volunteer what kind of work would you be doing to help these types of people. That would help the reader better understand what exactly they would be doing if they volunteered. Would you be helping council people for therapy or would you be doing some other sort of work for the organization. Over all this was a well written paper and you did include a lot of information and reasons to help these people. There could be some more information but the amount you have is suffice. The last comment I have is the flow of your essay was a little off for me. Meaning some sentences could have been moved around and put in different spots to fit better.
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Amber Bey
I thought your introduction was attention capturing. It made me really think about people with addictions. My paper was about eating disorders, so I could kind of relate to your paper. I think it is good that you decided to write about a subject that you have had problems with, because you had a lot of passion when it came to writing about it. Addictions are something that affects a person so seriously that they need as much help as possible to get over their problem. Even though people might say it is the choice of the person with the addiction, it is much more complicated. These people have major mental issues that need to be noticed. I thought it was clever to add some statistics to the beginning of the paper to give the reader awareness of the problem.
You talked about how alcoholism goes somewhat unnoticed in America. I completely agree with this because people are more focused on other addictions and problems going on in society. I think since so many people drink alcohol that people do not see it as a drug or something that people could die from. This is scary because of the fact that so many people are dying from alcohol. Not only from health problems, but also in drunk driving accidents and other alcohol related accidents. People should be more considerate of those with addictions such as alcoholism. Our society needs to realize that sometimes people make mistakes; even though it might be the choice of the person with the addiction they still need help to get over it. It is great that there are organizations that focus on the issue. It is good to know there are people that care. I thought the second paragraph was very informative, but make sure to re-read your paper because there were a few grammatical errors and what not.
It is very sad that one of the main reasons people continue to be alcoholics is because they do not have the money or the proper help to stop. It is so important for people to realize that some addicts do not have the willpower or the support in order to stop. This is why our society should work together in donating and helping. I’m very sorry to hear about your uncle, it is unfathomable how hard it would be to quit something that your brain and body constantly desires.
I watch the show intervention quite frequently, and I realize how important it is for those with addictions to realize how they are affecting not only themselves but their loved ones as well. I totally agree that one of the most important things one could do for a loved one with this disease is to let them know how they are personally affecting you and how you feel about the situation. Letting the person know that you want to help them could be a huge wake up call. When they realize how important they are to their loved ones they will most likely push to change themselves. This was a very important part of the paper; it could inform many how they can personally make a difference.
Your paper was very informative. I enjoyed reading this because it made me think about how alcoholism is such a huge problem today. I believe this was a smart topic to write about. The only thing I recommend you doing is going back and re-reading your paper. There are quite a few grammatical errors. I also think you could have wrote a little more on today’s issues of alcoholism.
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Armando Cortez
In the book of “Why White Rice” I did a little bit of catching up on my reading and I really liked in chapter four where it talked about choosing the words you use in writing wisely. Make sure that you think before you say and write something down because then at the end of the day it may not end up making sense at all with what you said in your sentence. What made it interesting was how Eric talked about Mike tyson and how he would watch him fight and knockout people left and right. That caught my attention right there because like Eric, I too was really amazed and surprised with his punching ability. But not only did he talk about his boxing ablilty and being a great boxer but he also mentioned how in Mike Tyson’s interviews, he would sometimes speak and say words that didn’t make awhole lot of sense. That right there would at the end of the day make him look dumb to the millions of people that I’m sure watched his interviews. For example Eric said he went to mike tyson famous quotes and one of the quotes he used for this example was, “My power is discombobulatingly devastating. I could feel his muscle tissues collapse under my force. It’s ludicrous these mortals even attempt to enter my realm” (Tyson 98). This set up to what made this section of the book intersting because as to what Eric refered to “Discombobularity” not even being a word and how Mike said in the interview “ludicrous” which “ludicrisp” would have been the right form of the word. Clearly his usage of words to people around watching made him look dumb. And that’s what Eric tried to get across that you should really think through what your about to say and if what you say goes along with every content of writing that you are putting in your paper or even in general when your speaking to someone. I couldn’t agree more with eric here because yea the ideas you come up with our sometimes complex; well most of the time and so you really have to make sure with yourself if everything that your thinking of saying makes sense to you and not just put down any random word to make it sound like it fits or goes along with what your writng. I felt this was really interesing and funny too because most of time sometimes Tyson said some things that i didn’t get myself; but overall it’s something we can all learn from in the long run. Again taking that one step closer to being a good writer.
DeVilez,Eric”Let Your Language Be Simple and your ideas Complex” Why White Rice? Thinking Through Writing.Kendall Hunt Pub.2010 97-98.Print. -
Armando Cortez
In class after discussing what activism and what service was I got a more better view of what they really were. I always had my thoughts of what they were but I learned that when it comes to service it is something you volunteer to do to help the issue and solve it. Activism is more like doing something on your own and helping the issue but also helping to change it. Both make a huge difference in our world today but as we talked in class we concluded that more people would want to do service instead of activism. The reason being Activism is more hard but I believe it doesn’t matter how hard it is your still making a big difference in this world for other people to follow and help change; that’s the way i see it.
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Armando Cortez
Reading the article of Village Voice left me with that inspirational feeling. It’s people like rajeev who make you want to do something in the same manner maybe not all completley the same but something that could make a differnece like he demonstrated in the article. In the article it was seen how Rajeev was really devoted to the Peace Core and seeing how he went out to help the people in need was really admirable. Just by the way he was able to help raising money and even going as far as too building schools for the people was something else. This was a man with a tremendous ambition he knew what he wanted to do. In the back of his mind he wanted to help those people and really thought of their well-being.. To me he stands out as a true leader not afraid to speak his mind and face all the politics in order to make a difference in the lives of the people he was fighting for. there have been many people who have come and gone, and I could tell you personally I have seen people fail and never be the same because they let their failure get to them. Then out of that result they are too afraid to keep fighting because in the back of their minds failure is something they don’t want to run into again. but you see Rajeev who knowing all that took the challenge and came out with his head held high and for that the respect levels goes way up in my opinion for this man. Even the people there literally cried just at the fact they knew of what he done for them and all the things he was doing. that would be giving to the needy, such as mony, and clothes like hats and other things of that nature. What came to my surprise was that Beyonce and jay-z were part in this, it’s good to see how some celebrities care enough for things like this. right now I can sit and think of the many things I could do to make a difference it doesnt’ necessarily have to be something big like Rajeev did but the little things they say also count and I could thing of a few. But in essence anything is possible and if one made a differnece then we can all in some way too make a difference.
Hessler, Peter. “A Reporter at Large: Village Voice, The Peace Corp’s Brightest Hope.” New York: The New Yorker.2010. 101-109. Splatter.writing101.net: The messy art of writing. Web. 8 feb. 2012 -
Armando Cortez
In the Who would survive activity I thought was somewhat interesting but also hard. I say hard in the fact that choosing who lives and who dies well that’s the hard part. If it was up to me I would have everyone live because i don’t think its up to us who lives and who dies. The intersting factor during the activity it really got to show if stereotypes were an influence in the decisions that were made. But to me I put all the prejudice andwhat not all aside and just carfully chose those seven peopel but again if it was to me i would have them all live. I originally chose to have Dr. Garcia, father philip, Jean hernandez, Mr. newton, Mary white, Mrs. hernandez, and Bobby lang survive. Now that I looked at it more clearly I changed it a little by having Dr. garcia out and Mr.Young; and bring in Dr. lang and Mrs. lang. To me it was having the children survive cause I see it as them being innocent in all of this. I also think if they survive their parent sshould be with them that’s why i brought in Mrs. lang and Dr. lang. The others I just randomly chose to be honest but it wasn’t the case for some of my other group memebers. they decided to have Jean hernadez live but let her mom die, which to me was odd I beleive the baby should have the warmth of her mother and letting her know she’s there but again it wasn’t the case for my partners. And they also had father philip die too and have mr. Young live something else i didn’t really disagreed with but none the less I think this exercise was a good test to see how we would react in situations where the circumstances are not in our hands. I think overall stereotypes were revealed becuase I mean take Dr. Garcia for example the majority made the decision not to have him survive because of his bad health and the same could say for the others of other reasons. But I mean stereotypes come in many ways, we should stop doing it but unfortunatley it keeps happening if we like to admit or not.
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Armando Cortez
When I read the article “What it means when a crowd in a faraway nation takes a soldier representing your own nation, shoots him, drags him from his vehicle, and then mutilates him in the dust,” it was disturbing. It was really interesting though how this sense of imagery was present in the article. You could really picture it in your head only in the end the question remains in tact what happened next? But not only that question other questions like why was there no blood when the soldier is beneath the truck? This and more brings forth this sort of mystery of questions in your head which I think is the purpose and he did a great job is doing it. It makes you want to read more to see what happens, and when delt with other books sometimes you just read and your okay with the ending. But in this piece of article you want to read more and I think now a days thats what books should bring out in someone like me and any other people in that matter. Make the person want to read more and more just with that I think It was great of being able to catch that in readers like me and others I’m sure. What was intriguing aswell is the way the man reacted when he saw the newspaper about the soldier. It kind of brings forth this sense that probably he was a soldier too at some point and when seeing that it brought back things he probably didn’t want to remember. And that’s why now he’s suffering from this type of disease if you would call it or whatever it maybe. Overall, this article left questions unanswered and an ending in question. But maybe that’s the beauty part of it we each put in an ending to it, with what is given in the article we can each come up with different ideas with an ending and that right there is something different and fascinating.
Eggers, Dave. “How We Are Hungry”, What It Means When A Crowd In A Faraway Nation Takes A Soldier Representing Your Own Nation, Shoots Him, Drags Him From His Vehicle And Then Mutilates Him In The Dust. McSweeney’s, 2004. pgs 17-18. Splatter.writing101.net 2012 -
Armando Cortez
Live,Die,Kill Three words you will pay attention too
Life no one really knows where it will take us. Is it our own decisions that guide us? Or does faith play the bigger role dictating the road we’ll travel? What courses we must endure, I don’t think there is no certainty no way to know. And everything can change in an instant. That’s why in life when asked the question what would you live for? I right away think of family in this particular case because to me my family is the most closest thing I have in my life. I also think that’s it’s something that God has been able to bless you tremendously in life in having a family. I realize that there are people out there in the world who don’t have what I have and its something I put in perspective. Family is truly something I live for because in my family I have been blessed with the most amazing parents to me, that’s just me. I see how many children grow up with parents who don’t care what so ever about them of what happens to them or what they do. It just really sets in with me because I do see how my mom and dad care for me and what nothing but the best for me, they want to see me succeed in life. They show it with all their love and support in college and helping out anyway possible making sure I serve the right classes for the particular career I set myself on. They always ask how i’m doing in school and if it went well and also give advice about things related to school and non related. All this and more I am nothing but thankful to one person and that’s God himself for giving me two wonderful parents and the family including cousins, aunts, and uncles as well as grandmas’s and grandpa’s. I live for them so that they can see me be somebody in life and see how I go on with my life. I also want them to be proud to have me as a son, cousin, nephew whatever it may be, I’m just so thankful if i would live for anything in this world it would be for them.
Now, that i have answered what i would live for. The question now would be What would you die for? The first thing that comes to my mind in thinking of what I would die for is love. And in reality that is absolutley true I feel that in life when you get to a certain age in your life you meet that special someone in your life where you would do anything for them. I think like around 13 or 14 is where this sort of begins. You start meeting people and sometimes you think you meet that person but you find out you were wrong things happen and you guys break up but its part of life. I can say from personal experience that I had thought I met the one and in reality at my age I think its safe to say that I took it too serious and that was my error. You have to let things flow and little by little if its meant to be then it will be meant to be. But for me I took it too serious and I ended up hurting myself. I should of done things differently in the relationship that i had, I should of listened to the advice of parents and people that I was really close to but I wouldn’t and had to learn the hard way. Its things like that that you learn from in order to become a better person and that’s basically how I see it. When I was more younger I was really into this one girl whom ended up being my girlfriend and I was I could say “in love” took it serious maybe too serious and what ended up happening was at the end of the day she cheated on me and i found out in a way that’s embarrassing for me to say here but the thing was that i found out and it really hurt. To me I had done nothing but give her the best of me. I really took a step back and through that pain thought to myself that i had been honest and truthful to her since the beginning and this is how she repays me. From that point I literally went down hill and didnt know what to think of it. I was angry over the fact that she did what she did and another part of me still had feelings not as strong as before but they were there. but to me I thouhgt what was the point seeing her with her other boyfriends it hurt in some way but I never wanted her to see me get bothered over that fact, I took it like normal but inside of me was sad and hurt.
Along the way I had much of the blame. Many people in my life who were close with her like I was had warned me to end the relationship because it was for my own good. People like my cousin whom I was really close at some point now were not that really. Don’t get me wrong were still close but not like before, anyway I had listened to her advice my mom’s constant pleading to end it because she didn’t want me to get hurt. Other close people to me also told me and even her own mother had told me that she saw how I was a good person she didn’t want me to get too in to her so she wouldn’t hurt me. Every sing person who gave me advice in some way over her knew how she was, what problems she had in the past, the type of friends she talked to and hung out with. The answer to those were not good but I stayed there and continued with her because I had this “love” for her. It was dumb and I was the only to blame for what i went through. But The Lord was great I was able to get over the pain and I found someone else a blessing from God. She feels the same way as I do the love we have for each other. I am in Love and not afraid to honestly say that i would die for her because I would, she means a lot to me my angel the greatest treasure God has given me.
“To die for” has been a phrase used sometimes often but how about “To kill for” or what I would kill for? The only thing that goes through my head when trying to answer that question is food to survive. I think that’s the main reason I would only kill animals in order to survive and not die from hunger. I don’t see myself taking anyone’s life for that matter in return for anything. I’m Christian and I know that killing anyone is a sin but animals is something else. The animals of this world were brought here’s so we can hunt and kill for food. For example, an animal like the chicken is made so we can eat. That is the only killing that I am willing to do because it is something you can do and need to do in order to survive and not let yourself die from hunger. I truly believe that is the only killing allowed and one that is acceptable something other an animal like a person would be considered murder and a sin as well. Not only that but you would be breaking one of the commandments given to us written in the Holy Bible. You can say I am religious but i’m not trying to be i’m just stating the truth about this particular situation and wouldn’t have it any other way. This is just me being honest to this point just getting to the point of me killing for something that is necessary in order to survive . In essence to this all I believe that you truly got to value everything in life and everything will be much better, I know it for a fact.
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Roberto Kobik
After reading you essay I basically understood that family is your everything. Without them it would be hard for you to survive, but also you would have nothing to live for. You stated that you live to make your family happy. You live your life to its potential and try your hardest to succeed because in a way you live and make the choices you make to bring your loved ones happiness. You go to school and try your hardest in life to bring your family especially you parents the people that created you happiness. You don’t want to disappoint them so you do your best to keep them happy. I thought your introduction was pretty good but your second paragraph confused me at first. You did state your main idea of the second paragraph in the beginning which is good but then you went off talking about relationships you had. Its around that point where I was confused because I was thinking what does this have to do with what you would die for. But after I read the end of that paragraph it kind of made sense to me why you put all the information of your previous relationships there. I think you put that information there to kind of show people what you have been through relationship wise and the struggles you’ve had. By doing that you showed how many mistakes you’ve made with love and how it hurt you. This information in a way was good to be included because it emphasizes how hard love is to find and how much it means to you . So at the end when you said you finally found love and that is what you would die for I understood why you put that information there. You put it there to build up to your main point of that paragraph. But one think I do have to say is it was a little bit bouncy if that makes any sense.
The last paragraph was also pretty good. I just thought one of your sentences was a bit weird. I thought this because you included a lot of religious information and stated that you would only kill things meant to be killed. You then gave examples and went on talking about why you would only kill animals because that’s OK to do but killing people is a sin. What I found weird was the fact that you stated all of this but toward the end you wrote this sentence. “You can say I am religious but i’m not trying to be i’m just stating the truth about this particular situation and wouldn’t have it any other way.” What I found weird about that is that you stated a whole bunch of religious stuff and examples but later said I’m not being religious. So to me either your religious and those are the beliefs that you stand behind, or your not religious but you think those morals should be followed. -
Amber Bey
Your essay was similar to mine in the sense that you talked a great deal about your family. I can really relate to you in this way. It is wonderful to have people in life that you can count and depend on to be there for you. Not everyone in this world has that. Life can get difficult and having a supporting family can help you get through things a lot easier. I think it is great that they support you through your decisions to go to college and whatever else you decide to do. I think it was nice that you talked about your family, and the only thing I would recommend is adding a significant story or some kind of visionary support relating to your family and how you feel about them.
I was also able to relate to you in your second paragraph when you began talking about your first love. I was also hurt by my first love, which made me a stronger person. I’m sorry that you had to go through such a terrible experience, but you are definitely not alone. It is much better off that it happened the way it did, because it makes you realize how much your current girlfriend means to you. It is awesome that you found someone that you can love so much. I would have liked to hear more about your current girlfriend along with your former relationship. Since you were explaining what you would die for, I think you should have talked more about your current love. I thought it was clever to explain your past in order to show how strong your feelings are for your current love, but it would have been more detailed if you talked about your recent girlfriend.
I think it is nice that you follow your religion so closely. I think it is a great thing to have so much faith and admiration for your religion. It is hard for me to be completely dedicated to things, so I respect when people are so closely dedicated to things like religion. I am kind of curious about something though. You talked a lot about your family and your love as well. I’m very surprised you would not kill for them. I might just be curious because in my essay I said I would kill for my family. It seems like in certain situations killing would be necessary to do, but maybe you see differently because of your religious views. I do not think it is a bad thing by any means; I am just interested about your views on that.
Overall, I think your essay said a lot about you. It displayed what you care about most in life and that is your family, your love, and your religion. I think it is great that you stick to what you believe in, and that you are such a faithful person. The only general advice I would give you is to watch your grammatical errors and sentence structure. Other than that I enjoyed reading about your life. -
Alexander Roth
Armando your paper was really inspiring. The idea that your family is your motivation for living, that the blessing of having a wonderful family is the driving factor in your life is really great. A family that is a support system is becoming a rare commodity in current times; it’s refreshing to know that parents can still make a difference in their kid’s lives. I hope I can be the example one day to my kid’s lives as your parents to yours. Your second and third paragraphs were spectacular; although it did have some grammar issues and spelling mistakes the content was inspiring. Love is difficult for many people to talk about and even harder to write about and let people see. I am very impressed with what you had to say about your experience with romantic love. You say you would die for love, is it love for another person or the idea of love? Either way, you did an excellent job with filling the reader in with the importance love has had in your development and how it is still an important part of your life, even though you have been deeply hurt. It is refreshing to read about the pain and hurt it takes for the human spirit to gain life experience is the same for everyone. Your situation was tragic, but you handled your misfortune as a learning experience, found god and through faith was able to find love again, that’s remarkable. The final question answered in your essay was “What would you kill for?” Your answer was to not starve, a very justifiable answer. I understand that your faith is something that you do not take lightly, you are a devout Christian. I believe that if you could go more in depth on the history and reason that Christianity is such a big part of your life the reader would appreciate your answer more. The content of your paper should not be the focus of your next revisions. Your paper has a lot to say and future revisions should be focused on saying all you want to as efficiently as possible. Reading your paper I would like to know why your family is such a big part of your life more than what you wrote. You say your parents only want the best for you and they’ve helped direct you, but reading your paper I would like to know how they’ve helped you and/or why did you need their direction. Your paper was able to convey your emotion and passion about your first two answers, not so much the last answer. As a writer your noticeable inconsistencies in your writing was your grammar, topic sentences, sentence organization and your papers rhythm. Apart from the corrections, your paper has good content that effectively sets a tone and answers most questions that arise while reading. I would love to help if you want.
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Armando Cortez
I think ecological literacy means understanding the ecosystems that surround the environment. One can become ecologically literate by understanding the concept and studying it so that they can become educated with the bigger picture of it and what the matter of it is. People already know how to become ecologically literate but they just don’t put in the time to do something about it. They rather have themeselves sit back and watch how little by little it becomes critical. They remain obsolete with them thinking it’s something normal that happens. Ecological literacy means being able to understand the ecosystems. According to Fritjof Capra,” In the coming decades, the survival of humanity will depend on our ecological literacy.” I would like to say that I am ecological literate but that would be just me trying to be good with the system and I would be lying. I may not be the best person out there that is always willing to help out I got to admit that sometimes slacking off and just being lazy gets a hold of me sometimes. But then again sometimes when I put my head into and really start to think, I come full circle and help out to the best of my ability,yet there are other people that are far worse than what Im saying but it just goes to show that peopl don’t really think of it too much. It’s sad to admit that yea I can be considered one of those peopel that doesn’t think much of it. And now that i have read this article I can strive to think more of it than what I’m used to and really think what I can do with my understanding and help in the environment. Not only the envirnomnet but the whole world with this one concept of ecological literacy with our better undertanding we cnan make a huge difference and impact for future to come.
— Capra, Fritjof. “From the Web of Life.” Print.
Roberto Kobik, and 
Amber Bey are discussing. 
Maura Bilek, and 
Alexander Roth, 
Amber Bey 1:10 pm on April 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I am sorry to hear that you and your group have been struggling with this project, because I can definitely say that our group is having the exact same problem. Our group chose to do a service project dealing with nature and the outdoors because of the fact that there are so many forest preserve organizations and such dealing with nature and the environment. One of my group members even had a plan set up to work with one of her high school ecology teachers. Unfortunately we were set up with this project at the wrong time because her teacher, along with the preserve organization, that we were supposed to work with did not set up any upcoming plans to do anything. This made us turn to plan B, which was to find someone else to work with. We did think of a place called The Little Red Schoolhouse, but we have not worked with them yet because of our schedules. So we are pretty much in the same boat at this point in time.
It seems like you guys have definitely been working hard to execute your plans; when you finally have an organization to work with, I think you will have a very successful paper. It was a good idea to work with an issue that you are somewhat familiar with and which most everyone else can relate to in some way. This will make the portfolio piece a lot easier to write. Although you have not done the full piece of writing, I think you could probably add more background information to this writing for the final piece. You can talk about the current issue on alcoholism and how it is affecting the people in today’s society. You can also talk about how it could be stopped and what some current organizations are doing in order to stop it. In addition to the current issues you can also talk about the organizations which you have not been successful in helping. You can add their point of view on the situation and what their efforts are in stopping the issue.
For your portfolio piece remember to write about your feeling on the entire experience. You might not think so, but I believe this is entire situation is a significant part of the volunteering experience. Sometimes people want to help others and volunteer, but there are difficulties in actually being able to get to do it. Express how you feel about putting effort into something that seems like it would get nowhere, even though I’m positive you guys will be able to find something to do. Once you do find something, make sure to add your changing feelings into the paper. You can say something like “I began to get down on myself because of the fact that I never believed we would be able to find an organization, but once we did I was thankful and eager to get started working.” These could be some useful building blocks before you get started on your final piece; I hope I could help.
Roberto Kobik 7:25 pm on April 22, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Sadly you are not the only group with these problems. There are also other groups that have similar setbacks that need to be resolved quick. The main drawback was the issue of time and schedules. A lot of people’s schedules conflicted with others making the whole situation worse. I think the more people you include the more multiplied the frustration gets. That is bad to hear that your group is having difficulties but at least you are not alone. Sometimes it helps to talk to other groups so that way if they are having similar problems you can brainstorm solutions. It also sucks that you need to get drug tested to volunteer with those types of organizations. I wonder why they make it such a process at some places. I think all places should be happy to have you volunteer there and help out rather than charge you or make you take pointless tests. I wonder what they need to drug test you for anyways. I know organizations like animal welfare and animal shelters charge a volunteer fee of even forty dollars. Which I think is crazy if you are paying them to work with them for free. I would feel better donating the money instead of being forced to. Another thing is, I think if you wanted to work with an alcohol managing organization then you would probably have to be twenty one as well. That makes more sense to me then the drug testing. It is also good that your group sought out advice from the instructor as well. I think if a group is cutting close to last minute they should always ask the professor for help. He may know many organizations well and could have a better chance arranging something short notice than us students would. I think each group should maintain contact with the professor through the whole project so that if any mistakes are made then they can be caught early. Also more reasons to maintain good contact with the professor doing this project is so that the chances of your group’s success are higher. I think if it is not too late you guys should consider other things important to you and possibly try to volunteer for those if they accept visits on short notice. There are places like for example the Salvation Army which has many locations and has a very flexible schedule to work around. Over there you would segregate donated items and clean them and prepare them for use. I think many groups did not think outside the box for the work they chose. Maybe that is because they did not know where to start. But once you really think about it, anything can be made into a service, and then service learning could be obtained from it. There are so many possibilities on what one can do to benefit the world it is crazy. Like here is one example of an outside the box thought. Grocery stores with a hot food area get rid of all the unsold food at the end of the day. Usually they throw so much food away it equals up to a whole garbage can of it. So one could convince the store to either give it to you for free or at a low price and then you could deliver it to a soup kitchen sort of place. There is just so much to do, the greatest factor is time.